It was an average day in Zone 3. Most Elsens were going about their work in the sugar refineries with their characteristic diligence. Others were on break in the cafeteria. Still others had tied up a half-naked Dedan as per his request and left him on Enoch's desk. Nothing out of the ordinary.
But when Enoch arrived he hardly seemed to notice the little gift that had been laid out for him. Sighing, he slumped into his chair and fished a fat stack of paperwork from one of his drawers.
"Yo, Enoch. You do see the guy trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey on your desk, right?"
The big guardian finally spoke up as he reached for his pen. "Can you come back later? I'm not really in the mood."
Enoch not in the mood for a quickie? Something ain't right here. I must be misunderstanding. "Well, seeing as I'm kinda tied up and helpless here, you could hypothetically do anything you wanted to me. Anything. Aaanything at all. Just sayin'."
Enoch appeared to consider this. "Anything?"
Dedan flashed him a winning grin. "Aaanything."
Enoch shrugged. "Okay." He picked Dedan up, untied him, set him outside the office and closed the door.
"You fuckin' knew what I meant by "anything", smartass!" Dedan yelled. His hand shot out for the doorknob, then he thought better of it. What the hell had the big guy so down in the dumps, anyway? Usually he was all smiles.
And I'll get a smile outta him before the day's done, he vowed.
Hours later, Dedan and several Elsens wheeled a trolley holding a massive, freshly-baked cake into Enoch's office. It was Devil's food, overflowing with rich, fragrant chocolate icing and perfect in every way—Dedan had seen to that, breathing down the baker Elsens' necks as if daring them to offer up anything short of their best efforts.
Enoch glanced up from his paperwork. "A cake?" he asked dully.
Dedan jerked his head toward the door. "Get," he muttered to the Elsens, who were only too happy to escape the snappish guardian. He turned back to Enoch. "It's Devil's food," he explained. "All for you. Your favorite," he added when even this last didn't appear to have much effect.
"Oh… how thoughtful. Thank you." Enoch stood and clumped over to pick it up.
Not even excited for his favorite dessert?! Shit, what now? Thinking furiously, Dedan hopped onto Enoch's shoulder as he stooped down. He wasn't going to give up now, dammit!
"You've been workin' way too hard, buddy. Don'tcha think you deserve a break?" As Enoch made his listless way back to his desk, Dedan leaned forward and caught his eye as if trying to make him literally see his point. "Hell, it's not like you even have to eat the cake right this second. Just take a few minutes to sit back and FUCK!"
In his desperation Dedan had let his guard down and leaned a little too far forward; he tumbled head over heels down Enoch's chest and landed spread-eagled right in the middle of the cake.
"Son of a motherfucking—" He squawked an impressive string of expletives with disbelief, yanking his head free of the still-warm frosting's gloppy tug. "Shit, Enoch, I'm sorry—"
Enoch had stopped walking. Dedan looked up at him, and his expression was hungry in more ways than one.
"I believe," he said in a low voice, "I'll have my cake right now after all."
Ohhh shit.
Dedan felt a blunt thud pass through the cake as Enoch set it on the desk. Before he could wriggle free of the sticky icing on his own, enormous fingers descended upon him and plucked him up easily, as if the other guardian were a god accepting a live sacrifice laid out for him by his cowering worshipers.
"What're you—ah, fffuck," Dedan whimpered as his friend's tongue doused him with scalding saliva from head to foot, the tip curling around each of his limbs in turn, unhurriedly cleaning every inch of him of even the most miniscule trace of chocolate frosting.
Oh, Enoch was smiling now.
Mission accomplished, the rational part of Dedan's brain noted before it was completely overshadowed by the part of his brain that wanted to hump everything with a pulse.
More to the point, there was still quite a bit of cake to go.
